The World Bank's New Policy on Development Policy Lending: A Constructive Critique

Social Studies Faculty Seminar: The World Bank's New Policy on Development Policy Lending: A Constructive Critique.

Ravi Kanbur (T. H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, Cornell University) was formerly a Professor of Economics at Warwick. In 1989 he left Warwick to join the World Bank and served successively as Senior Advisor, Resident Representative in Ghana, Chief Economist for Africa; and Principal Advisor to the Chief Economist of the World Bank. After leaving the Bank to take up his chair at Cornell, Ravi was invited back to lead the team producing the 2000/2001 World Development Report (with the theme ‘Attacking Poverty). However, in June 2000, Ravi resigned from the WDR team, prior to publication of the report, over his insistence that redistributive policies should play an important role alongside growth in tacking global poverty. Since then Ravi has continued to be a prolific author of articles and books, as well as convening major conferences on development economics and public economics in Africa, Asia, the U.K. and the U.S.